


Until It Shines

by stonecoldhedwig



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Fixing the goddamn canon, Fluff, Mild Angst, Minor Character Death, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-27
Updated: 2019-09-27
Packaged: 2020-10-29 07:50:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20793203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stonecoldhedwig/pseuds/stonecoldhedwig
Summary: A fluffy, mildly-angsty one shot where Remus remembers how lucky he is.For T, who loves each and every bathtub fic.





	Until It Shines

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WolfstarPups90](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WolfstarPups90/gifts).

Remus was never a heavy sleeper before the peace came. As a child, he'd always been full of the kind of energy that's only really burnt off by frolicking with other children, and he didn't have that. His mother eventually painted the constellations onto his bedroom ceiling, getting his father to enchant them to glow in the dark, so he had something to look up at when he couldn't sleep. He'd always been good at Astronomy at Hogwarts as a result. The insomnia had followed him into adolescence and then adulthood, and he had often found himself picturing the ceiling of his childhood bedroom. Sometimes he wondered if his mother's real reasoning wasn't to do with the fact he couldn't sleep; maybe it more about teaching him not to be scared of the night.

And then Halloween 1981 happened, and, well... the world fell apart as he knew it. _Everything changed_. His best friend, betraying his other best friends... it was still a permanent ache in his gut. How could he not have known? This was someone he'd slept beside since he was eleven, poured his heart out to on many an occasion. The constant question of how and why haunts Remus still, but especially on the anniversary of... everything. And yet, he has slept better ever since. Remus wonders if that's because of who he shares a bed with now.

This Halloween morning, Remus wakes slowly. He feels the gentle pressure of the duvet over him; he'd insisted they dispense with the old-fashioned quilts and sheets that seemed like such a hassle. He sniffs, breathing in the scent of the laundry soap on the sheets; they were fresh on last night, and they feel and smell wonderful. Then, he opens his eyes and squints into the bright light of their calm, sparse bedroom; it's filled with the pale light so characteristic of this time of year as autumn bleeds into winter. He rolls over to look at the other side of the bed but finds it empty.

Remus can hear noises from the en suite. He pulls back the covers, and sits up, yawning and stretching his arms above his head. One shoulder clicks, settling back into its rightful place from where he's been sleeping at some ungodly angle. He pushes himself up with his left hand, glancing down at the gold ring that sits shining on his finger. It's so new. Only weeks old. New, but right. He pads over to the bathroom, and opens the door.

"Morning, sleepyhead," Sirius grins. He's still in his pyjamas, with an apron tied around his waist. On his hands are a pair of rubber gloves with hot pink feathers round the cuffs, that Remus bought him as a joke only to find Sirius absolutely taken with. In one hand is a spray bottle of bathroom cleaner, and in the other is a sponge.

"Good morning," replies Remus, his voice a little husky from sleep. "What are you doing? It's like nine o'clock in the morning?"

"I woke up early, and now I'm a house husband, I decided I should get on and do some cleaning."

"You're ridiculous," Remus laughs, and drops the lid on the toilet so he can sit down. He looks up at Sirius' grey eyes, crinkled at the sides from his slightly-crooked smirk. "I love you."   
  
"I love you too," Sirius says, giving Remus a peck on the end of his nose. He turns back to the bathtub and begins to clean it again, chattering away happily. Remus surveys the man he loves, takes in the long lithe limbs and the dark hair pulled messily atop his head. This is good._ They_ are good. They're somewhere close to _whole_.

Today, they'll make coffee in the galley kitchen of their little basement flat. They're not far from Hampstead Heath, and Remus loves it. The place is light and airy; Sirius had vetoed anything that reminded him of the darkness of Grimmauld Place, insisting upon whitewashed walls and vibrant art upon them. They'll make their coffee and they'll sit in comfortable silence in the little nook by the bay window that looks out onto the courtyard. They'll maybe talk about what they'll have for lunch or fill in the crossword together. Either way, it'll be what they need.

Later, he and Sirius will go to Lily and James'. Harry is getting so big now - it's hard to believe he's seven already! Sirius will inevitably transform into Padfoot, so that he and Harry can race together through the piles of leaves in the back garden of Peverell Hall, James' childhood home. Lily and Remus will stand either side of James as he looks out of the window at his brother and his son, wishing it were him racing around out there with Harry. But, even after six years, the injuries that James sustained that night have left him unable to race around in the cold like that. In time, he'll be able to get back on a broom, or play with Harry, but until then, there's no one better than Sirius to carry the weight.

Remus knows it's been a strain on James and Lily's marriage, at times. James is someone full of energy, wild delight at the world, and to have to be so cooped up for so long feels wrong. He's sunk into deep depressions at times because of it, and Remus knows how hard that's been. He also knows that Lily is a woman with endless, endless grace. She looks at her husband with that same rich, blazing look that she has since the day she realised that _yes, she's in love with James Potter_, thank you very much. The Healers think it'll only be a year or so more before James is fully healed, but Lily says it could be like this for the rest of their lives and she wouldn't care. He's James. He's hers. She'll take the complications just for that.

They'll all walk to the old cottage. After they survived that fateful night, and the peacetime came, James and Lily moved back in with his parents at Peverell Hall. Monty and Mia had loved it, those final couple of years with Harry, before they slipped into the beyond within days of each other. Today, as the four of them and Harry stand in front of that ruined house, Remus and Lily and James and Sirius will remember the tragedy of that loss. They'll remember the night of Halloween 1981 and the final showdown between the Death Eaters and the Order. They'll remember losing the Prewetts, and Benjy Fenwick. They'll be reminded that light and dark have fought and light has won, but not without cost. It was a hell of a price for the life they now lead, this bubble of domesticity.

They'll remember, too, Peter. Peter, who had thrown away all that they had built together, every semblance of brotherhood. Peter, who had been too fickle, or too scared, or just too bad to die for his friends like they would have died for him. They're not sure where he is because no one's sure where he is. They'll remember that they didn't make an enemy that night; they lost a brother.

"There!" Sirius cries triumphantly, beaming and looking at Remus. "It's all in the wrist action, you see; you've really got to buff the chrome until it shines."

Remus feels his heart swell. Only Sirius - only Sirius could make him giddy and lovestruck with talk of _buffing chrome_. It's the most mundane of things, but after everything, it's more precious than gold. As Sirius turns to the sink to wash his hands, Remus stands.

"Come back to bed," he murmurs, moving behind Sirius and pressing a soft kiss to the nape of his neck. "Come back to bed and let me show you how much I love you."


End file.
